Opposition in all Things

"God is supposed to know everything, all right, then why didn't he make this earth without bad or evil things in it? Why didn't he make us so that we would always be kind to each other? He could of made it so that it was always summer, and there's always apples in the trees." (Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima, 207)

In Bless Me, Ultima, Florence and Tony have a discussion about why bad things happen in the world. Florence had a really tough life and doesn't believe in God as a result of his mother's death, his father's death caused from alcohol, and his sisters being whores. Florence wonders what he did to deserve all these bad things. Florence has many questions of the soul that many people wonder about. When Florence wonders why God didn't make this world without bad and evil, he reminded me of 2 Nephi 2:11; 16 when Lehi teaches his son Jacob about how there needs to be an opposition in all things.

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad...Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other" (2 Nephi 2: 11; 16). Unbeknown to Florence, God sent us to this earth to get a body and pass through experiences that will help us grow and become more like Him. If there was no opposition, we would not be able to change, we would not know joy because we would not experience sorrow and pain and we would be forced to have only one choice, which choice would be Satan's plan. Since God knows everything, he knew that it would be best for us to have our agency so that we could choose for ourselves. Through making our own righteous choices, we become disciples and we show God that we are loyal and that we love Him.

God loves us so much that he sent us to earth to learn and grow. As stated previously, opposition is necessary in all aspects of life and as soon as we realize this and apply it into our lives, we will understand why we are put into certain situations and how we can use our agency to change ourselves or our situations for the better.